LifeTime Fitness Vernon Hills......Are you kidding me?

Poor customer service at LifeTime Fitness Vernon Hills!

Fitness fanatics, I just wanted to share with you an incident that occurred at Lifetime Fitness on the 4th of July and get your input, so please feel free to share your thoughts.

I had a friend, a local BG resident met me at Lifetime on Thursday July 4th about 11:00 so I could take her family of 4 for a quick swim and use 4 of my 8 guest passes I am allotted.

I was running late, so I suggested she fill out the "guest form" while she waited for me to arrive.  The clerk at the front desk said that the "member" needed to be present, so she patiently waited.

Unfortunately she had to wait for about 15 minutes with her 2 kids becoming increasingly impatient.  When I finally arrived,  i asked the clerk to please allow her to fill out the form.  It was then, the clerk informed us there are no guest passes on a holiday.

I than asked if he knew this,  why 20 minutes ago, when she first inquired,  he did not mention to her that there were no "passes" or suggest to have me, the member call him, so he could tell me and I could tell her.

I then asked for the manager.  I spoke with the General Manager and he informed me that there are no guest passes on a holiday weekend, but if I wanted I could pay $30 1/2 of the fee for what a person who walks in from the street would pay to use the facility for the day.

I thought that was contradicting, especially since he told me this was one of the busiest times of the year for Lifetime, but the parking lot was not even filled to capacity.

So, he informed me that there are no guests allowed on "holiday weekends" because the club is extremely busy, but I could go ahead and pay $30 and the whole family could use the facility.

I tried to reason with him, inquired again why his employee didn't tell her or call me 20 minutes ago and then the sign on the front counter, caught my eye!  (Please see Photo).

The sign clearly states, there are no guests on the 4th of July, but the guest passes will resume the following day!  Now really? What about the 'holiday" weekend policy! 

The General Manager would not budge and I suggested he take down his sign,  and I again explained his contradicting policy.

We decided not to pay the $30 fee as a matter of principle.  I asked my friend where she wanted to go, and she said her kids just wanted to go home.  I went into the club with my 7 yr old and when I spoke with my friend later, she said they ended up going to the Buffalo Grove Aquatic Park. 

Funny thing is, I spoke with one of the lifeguards who told me there was only about 100 people at the pool and that they were not even fully staffed nor near capacity!

I thought the general manager could have at least offered her family a pass for another day, or waived his policy or perhaps split the $30 fee with me as I suggested.  

I was hoping you guys, local residents, and some probably members at Lifetime share your thoughts and suggestions.